To Some of My Fellow White People in Seattle!

(Warning to a Tweet Stream that objects to use of phrases like "tone-deaf" and "blind" as ableist: Get a grip! RantWoman as a legally blind person who tries to speak to a diversity of experiences about all kinds of things, just says get a grip.  RantWoman would say in the metaphorical sense some of these terms might be more easily cured by education and dialogue than their actualy physical disability faces, but RantWoman has no patience for depriving the language of valuable and precise language. Now we return to the intended tirade)


Dear Some of my fellow White People of Seattle


So you waited hours in the heat at Westlake Park to hear Bernie Sanders.


SFW?!?!?!? You think that gives you the right to Boo #BlackLIvesMatter????


Look. Bernie is a great guy and a powerful voice, but he is not some magical white savior who is going to sweep away all pain and inequality and hatred and sorrow by himself. If we want to make a better world for all of us, we are ALL going to need to step up, and sometimes we are going to be asked to step up in uncomfortable ways. COPE!


I have finally had a chance to read and listen to various slices of media about the  #BernieinSeattle. I am REALLY disgusted with some of my fellow white people. I think it would have been nicer f someone engaged about Bernie's campaign had been able to say in advance, "Look, #BlackLivesMatter is a really important part of our country's political life right now. The 4.5 minutes of silence would be a really important gesture. Can we just do it as part of the program? But that did not happen.


Instead #BlackLivesMatter activists took over the mic to call for 4.5 minutes of silence in honor of the 4.5 hours that Michael Brown's murdered body lay on the ground last year in #Ferguson and all a bunch of pasty white low melting point Seattleites could think about was hearing #Bernie. Okay, folks, now what do we need to think about if we want a serious step forward?


RantWoman did not vote for Hillary in 2008 because Hillary is so tone-deaf about racial issues. RantWoman was rewarded by an AWESOME Obama ground game that drew a whole bunch of new voters into our electoral process. RantWoman is not clear how she is going to be called to interact with the 2016 Presidential campaign, but one thing at a time.


RantWoman also wants to thank Friend Bicyclist for asking RantWoman whether she was going to the Saturday evening #BernieinSeattle events. RantWoman at that moment was fogging around her neighborhood food co-op trying to find tahini and mulbling to herself "What the hell kind of food co-op is this if I can't find the tahini?" Even though RantWoman ultimately did not go, she was glad to hear of the event. RantWoman appreciates being nudged out of that particular funk and also appreciates a rich stream of conversations the next day at Meeting.


Some additional links for consideration.


(RantWoman apologizes for losing patience trying to include specific links.)
see coverage including a powerful statement by WA Senator Pramila Jayapal D 437 at the.stranger.com .

http://theredelectric.blogspot.com/2015/08/bias-bungles-story-of-bernie-and.html